Barry Conn (NSW) & Kipiro Damas (LAE).
Guide to trees of Papua New Guinea
Copyright held by the authors, National Herbarium of New South Wales, and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium

Dysoxylum mollissimum Blume subsp. molle (Miq.) Mabb.

Blumea Vol. 38: 309 (1994)

Other Literature: D.J. Mabberley & A.M. Sing, Flora Malesiana, Series 1 93 (1995)

Family: Meliaceae
Dicotyledon

Timber Group: Minor hardwood

Field Characters: Large canopy tree (up to 34 m high); Bole cylindrical (up to 150 cm diam.); straight (bole up to 25 m long); buttresses buttresses present (buttresses up to 2 m high); spines spines absent; aerial roots aerial roots absent; stilt roots stilt roots absent; Bark grey or greyish brown, slightly rough or smooth, slightly scaly or flaky, slightly fissured, or slightly pustular, lenticels elongated laterally, rarely lenticels rounded/swelling, or rarely lenticels irregular; Subrhytidome (under-bark) yellow; less than 25 mm thick; bark blaze consisting of one layer; faintly to non-aromatic; outer blaze yellow or brown, speckled (orange), fibrous; inner blaze yellow or brown, speckled (orange), fibrous; bark exudate (sap) absent; terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Indumentum: Complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig indumentum (hairs) present or absent, hairs sparse.

Leaves: Leaves spaced along branches, spiral (leaves occurring singly at a node and arranged spirally up the branchlet), compound (a leaf made up from two or more leaflets); petiole present, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade, not swollen; leaves pinnate (unbranched with more than three leaflets); petiolule not swollen; rachis present, absent, absent; leaves without a terminal leaflet (the number of leaflets even - paripinnate), broadest below middle or equally broad throughout much of length, 13.0-16.0 cm, 4.0-5.0 cm, leaflets opposite (to subopposite), symmetric; venation pinnate, secondary veins open, prominent, intramarginal veins absent; leaves lower surface green, upper surface dark green, indumentum (hairs) absent or present, indumentum (hairs) sparse; absent; domatia absent; stipules absent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary (to supra-axillary), flowers on a branched axis, cones absent; flowers bisexual, stalked, flowers with many planes of symmetry, 8.0-12.0 mm long, diameter small (up to10 mm diam.) (5-6 mm diam.); perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals whorls, inner perianth white, pale yellow, or cream-coloured; 5, some or partly joined; stamens 8, absent, joined (to form a staminal tube), free of the perianth; ovary superior, carpels joined (when more than one), locules 4; styles solitary, 1.

Fruits: Infrutescence arranged on branched axis, fruit 15.0-25.0 mm long, red or brown, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, dehiscent, capsule; seeds 1-4, much more than 10 mm long (14-16 mm long), not winged, narrow (longer than wide), seed 1-10 mm diam. (c. 10 mm diam.).

Distribution: West Sepik, Morobe, Eastern Highlands & Milne Bay.

Botanical records in PNGplants database Map details